Published: February 23, 2006 11:48 pm         

Judge: Adult bookstore must move or change stock

An adult bookstore on the outskirts of Marshall, Ill., must change its merchandise or move to another location, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

The Gift Spot, owned by Illinois One News Inc., near Interstate 70 and Illinois 1 sells adult-oriented books, movies and novelty items and offers booths to view adult videos, according to court documents.

Illinois One News filed a lawsuit against the city in March 2004, stating a zoning ordinance was unconstitutional because it restrained free speech, and that adult-oriented entertainment is protected by the First and Fourteenth amendments.

On Wednesday, Judge J. Phil Gilbert ruled in the U.S. District Court Southern District of Illinois that the city’s ordinance did not violate the Constitution because it did not limit free speech by limiting the place it can occur.

The office of Meehling & Bernardoni, which represents the city, issued a statement declaring the city was happy about the judge’s ruling. Further information will be released at a 1:30 p.m. news conference today in Marshall City Hall.

In response to the ruling, Illinois One News can appeal, file a motion to reconsider or change the store’s content, said Roger D. Webber, an Urbana, Ill.-based attorney representing the company. Webber said as of Thursday, he did not know what action his clients will choose. A phone listing could not be found for the store.

The city’s ordinance, which included restrictions on adult establishments, was passed in November 2002 less than one week after The Gift Spot opened.

The ordinance required an adult business to be more than 1,000 feet from a school, church or regional shopping center district, among other areas. The plan commission would have to approve a site plan for an adult business before a building permit could be issued, the ordinance stated. The ordinance also allowed the City Council to place restrictions on the site plan, including lighting, parking and signage.

Under the city’s ordinance restrictions, three areas containing 33 sites are available to accommodate an adult use establishment if two acres of land are needed, Gilbert stated in the findings of fact and conclusions of law. Some of the areas would require road construction.

The city’s intent in passing a zoning ordinance for adult business was not to restrict free speech but to decrease the effects of a sexually oriented business, Gilbert stated.

As evidence of secondary effects from that type of business, city officials considered increased police reports and a 1990 kidnapping and rape of a young girl by a truck driver who had viewed sexually explicit material at the former adult establishment Hy-Way News, Gilbert said in court documents.

Illinois One News had previously owned and operated Hy-Way News, which had opened in 1985.

Joanne Hammer can be reached at (812) 231-4214 or joanne.hammer@tribstar.com.

What to know:

— A news conference discussing the judge’s ruling in the adult bookstore lawsuit will be conducted at 1:30 p.m. today in the Marshall, Ill., town hall.